DE 35 33 320 A1 teaches a device for applying a liquid film of considerable width, flowing in a laminar fashion and uniformly thin across the working width, to a continuously advanced web of goods with a liquid supply chamber, said chamber being delimited firstly by a barrier directed upwards diagonally to the horizontal and extending across the working width, said barrier being followed in the flow direction of the liquid by an overflow guard as well as a guiding surface abutting the overflow guard, from the lower end of which guiding surface the overflowing liquid film runs onto the web of goods, with said chamber being delimited secondly by an opposite barrier located at a distance from the first barrier. This device has proved itself for uniform distribution of a thin film of liquid across the working width of the web of goods.
A dye applicator is generally designed for a specific working width. In practice, however, the arriving webs of textile vary in width, possibly even in the short term. According to previous DE 195 25 458.9 A1, a supplement to the previously known device has been developed wherein the abovementioned liquid supply chamber has at the end opposite the overflow guard, a liquid supply area in which a plurality of liquid outflow openings terminate, said openings being connected by liquid supply hoses supplied with liquid by a pump, with the liquid supply chamber extending across the working width being divided over its width by a plurality of limiting walls extending in the gap of the liquid supply chamber from the overflow guard to the liquid supply area. Now it has been made possible in simple fashion to reduce the maximum design working width in short order to any desired size or to enlarge it again later without the quality or the uniformity of the liquid application being adversely affected.
In such a device, it is advantageously possible to permit a rapid dye change with a linear color change. A prerequisite for this is a small liquid volume within the entire applicator, with the new liquid flowing in forcing the old liquid out continuously and completely. This is made possible with the information from DE 40 26 198 A1, with the distribution of the liquid from each of the inflow openings to a plurality of outflow openings being provided stepwise in such fashion that the respective inflow opening is connected on both sides in the direction of the working width with a first branch line of the same length at whose respective end an intermediate outflow opening is provided, through which, in the same fashion, on both sides in the direction of the working width, a second branch line, but one which is shorter by half of the first branch line and has a reduced cross section, is connected for example with the outflow openings provided at the ends.
These facts can be implemented jointly in a device. The device therefore not only permits a uniformly distributed liquid film across the working width, but also a rapid change in both the width of the film and in the color being applied, with the color change taking place sharply and linearly.
A device of this kind is basically used only for continuous dying of a web of goods of a certain width. There is also the goal of using this optimum device for producing patterns, for example colored stripes. Of course, it is basically possible to provide each inflow opening or one above the other with a supply hose through which a different dye flows to the dye applicator. This dye is then distributed across the working width among the various branch lines and then flows in a constant width onto the web of goods. This width however is too coarse for finer striped patterns, for which reason the problem still remains of being able to dye patterns of this kind with a fine striped pattern.